Monday, January 08, 2007

Krayeske Gets Noticed

Colin McEnroe is outraged--yet again. The precipitating cause this time is the arrest and detention of one Ken Krayeske , communications director for Green Party candidate for governor, photographer, mountain bike rider, blogger and disturber of the peace.

Krayeske was detained and arrested by Hartford police--acting in concert with a shadowy group called the Connecticut Intelligence Center attached to the office of Homeland Security.

According to a police report, some of the representations of which have been questioned by Norm Pattis, Krayeske’s pony-tailed lawyer, this is what happened:

While Rell was parading in Hartford, Krayeske was seen by the police on a mountain bike proceeding at a fast clip to the head of the parade. Krayeske ditched his bike and rapidly approached Rell, intending to take a picture with a camera he had in a nylon bag. Krayeske took a picture before being apprehended by one of Hartford’s finest. The apprehending officer could not have mistaken Krayeske for one of the many young shoot’em ups in the city who have made live edgy for Courant reporters and staff that work downtown. The police knew who Krayeske was--because they had been provided with pictures of “troublemakers.”

The arresting officers identified Krayeske from a picture provided to them by the keepers of peace and security.

Krayeske was arrested and detained until the Ball celebrating Rell’s installation as governor concluded, at which point he was released.

Now, the arrest raises any number of legitimate questions. Was Krayeske arrested because he had managed to make of himself a political gadfly that offended the sensibilities of Governor Rell? This seems doubtful. Was Krayeske arrested because police had been forewarned about him and his behavior on this particular occassion alarmed them? This seems more likely.

At this point, it probably is not possible to have a rational discussion about the arrest because all the usual culprits already have rushed to the barricades.

The Abbie Hoffman of Connecticut bloggers, Bob Adams, who maintains a site called “ConnecticutBob,” has published on his site a fetching picture showing Jodi Rell clutching a cigar in her claw with her expressive middle finger raised in salute. The picture is captioned: “And if I wasn't on the list before, I sure as hell am NOW!”

Among bloggers, the race to offend Rell is now officially on. Perhaps McEnroe will intervene with his new friends; it won't be the first time he's told them to chill out. Some of them, to judge by imaJoeBob’s remarks, may be unreachable.

“I'm afraid I have to take you to task, Colin, for your apparent deference to Rell and your treatment of her as disengaged, innocent bystander. Rell has a long history of being a bystander while countless acts of turpitude were committed by public trustees all around her for the last 12 years. She has a long history of IM-plausible deniability for these same twelve years. It's time you dropped the charade of "innocent until.." with M. "Bugsy" Rell, and started treating her like what she is: Either the best insulated Organized Crime boss since Capone, or a completely witless pinhead who deserves as much derision and contempt as we can heap upon her.”